Last Thursday, the House and Senate passed budgets for fiscal year 2010. The House version includes critical language that could open the door for healthcare reform in 2009–and not a moment too soon. Unemployment is skyrocketing, increasing numbers of Americans are going without health insurance, and Democrats are looking to pass a healthcare reform bill fast. In the American Prospect, Ezra Klein explains three ways that budget reconciliation could be used to

Just in time for tax season, Robert Gates has reminded us just how much money we spend of foreign wars. In less than a decade, according to our guests, the defense budget has nearly doubled from two to three hundred billion to close to 800. And what we're actually spending may in fact be much higher than that. Tax resisters, however, say that you don’t have to fund the imperial budget.

While the Obamas were in Europe the House & Senate approved the president's $3 trillion budget. But the battle isn’t over. What will be cut and what will remain? Speaking late last month Obama said, "There are times when you can decorate your home and there are times when you have to fix its foundation.

In his new book, Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror, Columbia University Professor Mahmood Mamdani argues that the use of the word genocide is as political as ever and strategic ignorance about the history and current day politics of post-colonial Africa is just as great.

Mahmood Mamdani on the history and politics of Sudan. Veteran war tax resisters talk about why they'd rather not contribute to foreign wars and the defense budget. And the Uptake with Part I of their short film on the Norm Coleman/Al Franken senate race.

If the US is going to raise the issue of universal human rights, we have a lot of reckoning to do right here at home. A report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) detailing the abuse of 14 “high value detainees” transferred to Guantanamo Bay raises the question of responsibility. How will the Obama administration, and how will we, address the legacy of torture.

Rev. James Lawson at the protest on Wall Street. What does plantation capitalism have to do with out current financial crisis? And are activists organized to meet the challenge?

Fifteen years ago, this April 6, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, returning home from peace talks, were killed in a plane crash near the Rwandan capital, Kigali. Those deaths sparked a killing season in both countries that was particularly brutal in Rwanda.

The Obama administration has laid out its strategy for stabilizing and rebuilding Afghanistan: sending an additional 21,000 troops, strengthening the army and police forces, and establishing what Obama calls clear metrics for evaluating progress. Not everyone agrees. Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films says it is a flawed approach and is calling for a US policy that does not rely on military force.

The future of the US role in Afghanistan is the centerpiece of Barack Obama's foreign policy. But is it the right strategy? Robert Greenwald, Sean Duggan and others on the commitment of additional troops. 15 years after the Rwandan genocide, we speak to survivors. And footage from last weekend's protest on Wall Street.